New concrete groover and scarifier by Vermot

Vermot, the leading company in concrete grooving and scarification, unveiled its latest innovation of 2025: the J9 machine. The J9 is a concrete groover and scarifier developed and built in-house by Vermot in France.

What is a concrete groover used for?

In agriculture, a concrete groover is used to create grooves on concrete surfaces to stop cattle, such as dairy cows, from slipping and injuring themselves. This type of machine also improves traction on roads and sidewalks, and can help with water evacuation. When it’s raining, water that fells into channels moves away from the centre of the road, and is evacuated.

Some machines also act as concrete scarifiers; the J9 is one of them. The main goal of concrete grooving and scarification is to create a non-slippery environment.

New self-propelled concrete groover and scarifier: J9

The J9

Discover the J9

The J9 is a new self-propelled concrete groover and scarifier that has been on the market for several months now. From sheet metal work to hydraulics, everything but the painting was developed and carried out in-house at Vermot’s French headquarters in Rang, located near the Swiss and German borders.

Creating a machine in-house allows the company to support dairy farmers more quickly, as the team can build as many concrete groovers as needed in a short amount of time. This way, they can provide grooving and scarification services across the United Kingdom, or somewhere else in Europe, in a timely manner.

The J9 includes innovative carbide cutting pieces, advanced technologies, such as cameras, located at the front and at the rear of the machine, and a handy watering system.

Characteristics

1. Name: J9
2. Date of creation: Summer 2025.
3. Machine type: concrete groover and scarifier.
4. Dimensions:
   1. Height: about 7.20 ft (≈ 2.20 m).
   2. Width: about 5.74 ft (≈ 1.75 m).
   3. Working width: about 5.58 ft (≈ 1.70 m).
5. Weight: about 5 tonnes.
6. Engine power: 170 horsepower.
7. Main features:
   1. Front and rear cameras for more precision.
   2. Watering system.
   3. 3 independent rotors letting expert technicians adapt the working width.
   4. 1 telescopic arm that can reach up to 9.84 ft (3 m) in front of the machine, to groove and scarify narrow concrete areas.
   5. 3 wheels, including 1 caster wheel at the back, allowing the machine to turn in corridors as large as 9.84 ft (3 m) or larger.

Why the name J9

It all started in 1999, when the first yellow concrete groover and scarifier was created. The following machines were also yellow. In order to differentiate them, the team at Vermot decided to use the first letter of the colour (yellow is jaune in French – J for jaune), followed by their order of creation: J1, J2, J3, etc.

The J9 machine is the 9th concrete groover and scarifier in yellow from Vermot.

Note that the first self-propelled machine created by Vermot in 1997 was red, but is no longer in service.

Vermot, experts in concrete cutting

Vermot is a family business created in 1989 by Denis Vermot, a French dairy farmer who wanted to stop cattle slipping in barns and passageways. As he did not find any efficient and long-term solutions to the problem, he decided to develop the first self-propelled concrete groover. Denis did try to enhance a manual concrete groover before that, but, despite great performance, the machine was difficult to operate.

In 2019, his three sons took over the company: Mathieu, Thibault and Lionel. Their goal is to use their 35+ years of expertise in concrete cutting to build the best and most reliable self-propelled concrete groovers and scarifiers in Europe.

Vermot has a strong reputation for providing high-quality services across Europe; the teams are present in France, Germany and in the United Kingdom, but also help farmers in Belgium and in Switzerland.

Nowadays, these experts don’t only provide solutions to dairy farmers; they also help businesses in various sectors: agriculture, construction, roads, etc.

Vermot in numbers

Vermot is the leader in the concrete cutting industry; numbers don’t lie:

• 35+ years of experience in concrete grooving and scarification.
• Several nominations and 4+ awards for their unique products, including Brush’Kit®, custom-made brushes for automatic clean and dry scraping.
• 6.5M+ sq m of grooved or scarified surfaces since 1989.
• 14 machines designed and developed in-house.
• 30+ employees in the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
• 3 brothers who want to provide high-quality anti-slip and cleaning solutions.

Durability and flexibility

The J9 is the result of a strategic choice made by Lionel, Mathieu and Thibault Vermot in 2020 to achieve full independence in their machine manufacturing. Durability and flexibility are key to this strategic decision.

Thanks to Vermot’s considerable expertise within the agriculture industry, the Design Department was able to create a durable and efficient concrete grooving machine from A to Z. They adopted an eco-design approach for durability.

Technicians who worked in the field for many years shared some of the difficulties they encountered when working in cattle barns with the engineers who designed the latest concrete groover and scarifier; the J9. The Design Department then spent several months conceiving solutions and including them in the J9 machine. For instance, the J9 includes front and rear cameras, for technicians to monitor grooving and scarification results in real time and control the machine even better.

The main challenge in manufacturing this concrete groover was to manage to incorporate as many components as possible in a limited space to make the machine as compact as possible, while taking maintenance into account to ensure easy access and durability. Thanks to the compact size of the J9, technicians can reach narrow passage ways and easily turn in corridors.

With J9 being built fully in-house, this offers more flexibility about how many farmers Vermot can help at the same time across the UK, France and Germany.

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